Jenna Ellis pleads guilty in Georgia election interference case
Jenna Ellis pleads guilty in Georgia election interference case
Jenna Ellis reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in the Georgia 2020 election interference case Tuesday, becoming the third former Trump campaign attorney to do so. Ellis, who once described h…
Since the indictment, four of the 19 co-defendants have taken plea deals with prosecutors. Scott Hall, a former bail bondsman, was the first to do so last month.
In recent days, three Trump attorneys have now followed suit and agreed to testify against the former president. Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro took plea deals late last week, and Ellis joined them Tuesday.
Legal experts suggest their agreements to testify could raise the other defendants’ legal jeopardy or also induce them to take a deal.
Georgia prosecutors wiped that smile right off her face.
I wish. If I conspired overthrow an election and my punishment was a $5k fine and fake apology I would be grinning too.
High reward, low risk. This will keep happening.
Well she was crying in court anyway. Even if they were crocodile tears. Her career is probably over though so who knows.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes
Another loyal American subverted by the Deep State! /s
Rather than taking the blame, she said (in part):
What I did not do, but should have done, your honor, is to make sure that the facts that the other lawyers alleged to be true were, in fact, true. In the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states, including Georgia, I failed to do my due diligence.
The Model Rules explicitly disallow the type of defense she’s posing, I.e. “my boss told me it was OK!” She knows this, so she’s attempting to shift to a defense of innocent negligence (lack of diligence), rather than willful violations of law and ethics rules. Which, given she’s just agreed to be convicted of a crime or crimes, is going to be a tough defense to put up.
I believe Colorado will start separate bar/ethics proceedings now that’s she’s been newly convicted of a crime. She was not convicted when the CO Bar originally censured her, though the subject of the censure is largely the same.
TL;DR: She’s chock full of shit and hopes the CO Bar is going to punish her for a lack of diligence (which might be a lesser punishment) than for intentionally attempting to subvert an election.
Source: I’m a lawyer barred in two states. Kill me.
Disclaimer: take whatever I say with a massive grain of salt, I’m not your lawyer, I’m not barred in Colorado, etc.